Wayne Rooney
Write the first paragraph of your article here. Wayne AKA "The Boy". Introduced as Jose's second "signing" near the end of the first season. Wayne was child-like, brilliant, and incredibly talented in ventriloquism (with a puppet of Cristiano Ronaldo, known as "Ronnie-puppet"), chess, vocabulary, blindfolded Rubik's Cube, keepy-uppies, singing the first line to "Ave Maria", and playing the violin amongst other things. Wayne was adored by The Special One, and his addition to the show overshadowed the hapless Sven and led to jealous outbursts. At the beginning of season two, Wayne was seen in a full-body disease quarantine bag, a reference to his real life, where he was out for two weeks with a virus. He tells David that it was not malaria. Later on in the second series, Wayne hosted the "Great Debate" between José and Fabio. He later shaved his hair off, to once again resemble his human counterpart. Unlike the other characters on the show, Wayne's voice was not an impersonation, but high-pitched and childish, and with an exaggerated scouse accent. Wayne in Real Life After excelling for Liverpool Schoolboys, Rooney was signed on schoolboy terms by Everton at the age of ten. He was part of the youth squad, and after scoring in an FA Youth Cup match, he revealed a T-shirt under his jersey that read, "Once a Blue, always a Blue." Since he was under 17 at the time and therefore ineligible for a professional contract, he was playing for £80 a week and living with his family on one of the country's most deprived council estates. On 19 October 2002, five days before his 17th birthday, Rooney scored a match-winning goal against reigning league champions Arsenal; in addition to ending Arsenal's thirty-match unbeaten run, it made Rooney the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history, a record that has since been surpassed twice; first by James Milner and then by James Vaughan. He was named BBC Sports' 2002 Young Personality of the Year. He played 33 Premier League games that season and scored six goals. At the end of the 2003-04 season, Rooney, citing Everton's inability to challenge for European competition (they had finished seventh the previous season and only just missed out on a UEFA Cup place, but in 2003-04 had narrowly avoided relegation and finished 17th), requested a transfer that Everton refused to oblige if the transfer fee was less than £50 million. A three-year, £12,000-a-week contract offer from the club was snubbed by Rooney's agent in August 2004, leaving Manchester United and Newcastle United to compete for his signature. The Times reported that Newcastle were close to signing Rooney for £18.5 million, as confirmed by Rooney's agent, but Manchester United ultimately won the bidding war and Rooney signed at the end of the month after a £25.6 million deal with Everton was reached. At the time of the signing, Everton were close to administration and needed money to stay afloat. Fourteen days after Rooney's departure, Everton paid off a £10m loan from Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander which had been secured in February earlier that year to stave off the administrators. It was the highest fee ever paid for a player aged under 20. Rooney was still only 18 years old when he left Everton. In his final season at Everton, he scored eight goals in 34 Premier League games. On 1 September 2006, Everton manager David Moyes sued Rooney for libel after the tabloid newspaper The Daily Mail published excerpts from Rooney's 2006 autobiography that accused the coach of leaking Rooney's reasons for leaving the club to the press. The case was settled out of court for £500,000 on 3 June 2008, and Rooney apologized to Moyes for "false claims" he had made in the book regarding the matter. Rooney made his United debut on 28 September 2004 in a 6-2 Champions League group stage win over Fenerbahçe, scoring a hat-trick along with an assist. However, his first season at Old Trafford ended trophyless as United could only manage a third place finish in the league (having been champions or runners-up on all but two previous occasions since 1992) and failed to progress to the last eight of the UEFA Champions League. United had more success in the cup competitions, but were edged out of the League Cup in the semi finals by a Chelsea side who also won the Premier League title that season, and a goalless draw with Arsenal in the FA Cup final was followed by a penalty shoot-out defeat. However, Rooney was United's top league scorer that season with 11 goals, and was credited with the PFA Young Player of the Year award. In September 2005, Rooney was sent off in a UEFA Champions League clash with Villarreal of Spain (which ended in a goalless draw) for sarcastically clapping the referee who had booked him for an unintentional foul on an opponent.16 His first trophy with United came in the 2006 2006 League Cup, and he was also named man of the match after scoring twice in United's 4-0 win over Wigan Athletic in the final. In the Premier League, however, an erratic start to the season left title glory looking unlikely for United and their title hopes were ended in late April when they lost 3-0 at home to champions Chelsea and had to settle for second place. Rooney's goalscoring further improved in the 2005-06 season, as he managed 16 goals in 36 Premier League games. Rooney was sent off in an Amsterdam Tournament match against Porto on 4 August 2006 after hitting Porto defender Pepe with an elbow. He was punished with a three-match ban by the FA, following their receipt of a 23-page report from referee Ruud Bossen that explained his decision. Rooney wrote a letter of protest to the FA, citing the lack of punishment handed down to other players who were sent off in friendlies. He also threatened to withdraw the FA's permission to use his image rights if they did not revoke the ban, but the FA had no power to make such a decision. Rooney playing for Manchester UnitedDuring the first half of the 2006–07 season, Rooney ended a ten-game scoreless streak with a hat-trick against Bolton Wanderers, and he signed a two-year contract extension the next month that tied him to United until 2012. By the end of April, a combination of two goals in an 8-3 aggregate quarter-final win over Roma and two more in a 3-2 semi-final first leg victory over AC Milan brought Rooney's total goal amount to 23 in all competitions and tied him with teammate Cristiano Ronaldo for the team goalscoring lead. By the end of that season, he had scored 14 league goals. Rooney collected his first Premier League title winner's medal at the end of the 2006-07 season, but has yet to pick up an FA Cup winner's medal; he had to settle for a runners-up medal in the 2007 FA Cup Final. United announced during the post-season that Rooney had taken over the number 10 jersey that was vacated by Ruud van Nistelrooy, who had left for Real Madrid a year earlier. He was presented with the shirt at a press conference on 28 June 2007 by former United striker Denis Law, who had also worn the number during his tenure with the club in the 1960s and early 1970s. Rooney in a Champions League match against CelticOn 12 August 2007, Rooney fractured his left metatarsal in United's opening-day goalless draw against Reading; he had suffered the same injury to his right foot in 2004. After being sidelined for six weeks, he returned for United's 1-0 Champions League group stage win over Roma on 2 October, scoring the match's only goal. However, barely a month into his return, Rooney injured his ankle during a training session on 9 November, and missed an additional two weeks. His first match back was against Fulham on 3 December, in which he played 70 minutes. Rooney missed a total of ten games and finished the 2007-08 season with 18 goals (12 of them in the league), as United clinched both the Premier League and the Champions League, in which they defeated league rivals Chelsea in the competition's first-ever all-English final. On 4 October 2008 in a away win over Blackburn Rovers, Rooney became the youngest player in league history to make 200 appearances. On 14 January after scoring what turned out to be the only goal 54 seconds into the 1-0 win over Wigan Athletic, Rooney limped off with a hamstring ailment in the eighth minute. His replacement, Carlos Tévez, was injured himself shortly after entering the game, but stayed on. Rooney was out for three weeks, missing one match apiece in the League Cup and FA Cup, along with four Premier League matches. On 25 April 2009, Rooney scored his final league goals of the season in one of the games of the season, United scored 5 goals in an emphatic second half display to come from 2-0 down winning the game 5-2. Rooney grabbed two goals, set up two and provided the assist that led to the penalty for United's first goal. Rooney ended the season with 20 goals in all competitions, behind Ronaldo as leading United scorer for the season. Once again, he managed 12 goals in the league. 2009–10 Rooney's start to the new campaign got off to great scoring ways, he scored in the 90th minute of the 2009 Community Shield, however United lost the game to Chelsea on penalties. He then scored the only goal of the opening game of the 2009-10 season against Birmingham City, thus taking his overall United tally to 99. He failed to score in the next game, a historic 1-0 defeat to the hands of newly-promoted Burnley at Turf Moor. On 22 August 2009, he became the 20th Manchester United player to have scored over 100 goals for the club, finding the net twice in a 5-0 away win at Wigan Athletic, the game which saw Michael Owen notch his first goal for United. On 29 August 2009, United played Arsenal at Old Trafford. Rooney scored the equaliser from the penalty spot after Andrei Arshavin had put the Gunners ahead. The game finished 2-1 to Manchester United after Abou Diaby scored an own goal.32 Five days later Rooney commented on his penalty against Arsenal: "Everyone who watches me play knows I am an honest player, I play the game as honestly as I can. If the referee gives a penalty there is nothing you can do." On 28 November 2009, Rooney scored his first hat-trick for three years in a 4-1 away victory against Portsmouth, with two of them being penalties. He was awarded Man of the Match against Hull City for his performance. He was involved in all the goals scored in the game as he scored the opener and then gave away the ball for away side's equalizer which came from the spot but after this he forced Andy Dawson into conceding an own goal and then set up Dimitar Berbatov for United's third goal which gave them a 3-1 victory. On 23 January 2010, Rooney scored all four goals in Manchester United's 4–0 win over Hull City; three of the goals came in the last 10 minutes of the match.